


Loves you like I do

by gestalt (merlin91)



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M, fluff!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-16
Updated: 2014-04-16
Packaged: 2018-01-19 15:22:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1474657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merlin91/pseuds/gestalt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur finds out why Merlin is so upset, when Mordred flirts with him- like everywhere- and Gwen just smiles at him fondly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loves you like I do

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [Loves You Like I Do 爱你如我](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9389240) by [ChloeJ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChloeJ/pseuds/ChloeJ)



Arthur looked up from where he was bent over the table peering at the maps of the kingdoms surrounding Camelot. Mordred was peering over his shoulder and they’d been discussing a plan to protect Camelot’s eastern border which was vulnerable because of the sudden death of King Naves who had been a trusted ally. 

Arthur looked up to find Merlin glowering at them. He looked like there was nothing more in the world that he would love more than to come over here and sock Arthur in the face. Arthur cocked an eyebrow at him, but Merlin didn’t notice. He was too busy scowling at Mordred- or more specifically at the lack of distance between Mordred and him.

Ah.

So that was why Merlin seemed ready to burst a vein.

Arthur smiled to himself. Really, Merlin could be so- so- _(adorable! a voice inside his head piped up)_ stupid at times. Like Arthur was even going to give Mordred the time of the day. Yeah, he had noticed the increasing amount of flirtations that were occurring now, post- Mordred’s first big mission. Merlin had been strangely reluctant for taking him along, but _(since he was not the king, and Arthur was)_ he had to comply with what Arthur demanded. After that, it just seemed as if Mordred had fixated on him. He followed Arthur around everywhere, looked on adoringly when they trained, cheered him on loudly when Arthur was showing off his fighting prowess _(and Merlin was busy rolling his eyes at the show-off)_ gazed at him lovingly- like all the time, and stood very close to him during meetings, and often touched him on the hand, arm, shoulders etc, just like he was doing now. Arthur may not be the best in picking up signals, but this even he could understand, and it weirded him out a little, but he was sorta okay with it _(because it seemed to upset Merlin)_. It was not as if he was unaccustomed to getting over-the-top attentions from people- he being the prince and all- but since he was now married, he had presumed that they would stop. 

The one thing that Arthur didn’t understand was why Merlin seemed to be so affected by what Mordred was doing. He could understand Gwen being upset, she being his Queen and wife and all _(but she wasn’t, strangely enough- she would just smile fondly at Arthur and pat his cheek when he asked her why Merlin was behaving strangely)_. It must be because of the same reason why Merlin was leery of Mordred. Arthur had to get that reason out somehow form Merlin now. It was high time that idiot let go of some of his secrets.

Merlin then realized that he was being observed and his eyes swung to Arthur and at the amused smile he had on his face. That seemed to make him even angrier for some reason, and he huffed out what must have been a curse, plunked down the jug of water he had been holding, and stormed out of the council chambers.

Arthur blinked. That was not what he had been expecting. He stood there for a moment, an unconscious pout forming on his lips, and realized Mordred was calling him. He looked down and saw that Mordred was practically plastered to his side, and strangely, he suddenly felt very uncomfortable with that. He subtly moved away, and shook his head to dispel all thought about strange man-servants and their even stranger habits and focused on the maps. Camelot, borders, vulnerable. Right.

That evening, he couldn’t sit still. He hadn’t seen Merlin since the idiot had stormed out of the room, and he was feeling distinctly uneasy about that. Sighing to himself, he walked slowly in the corridors, feet unknowingly leading towards Gaius’s chambers. He turned a corner and stopped dead. At the end of the corridor was Merlin. With Mordred. Who was leaning over Merlin, who was leaning on the wall. 

Arthur felt a pang of jealousy so strong, he actually clutched his stomach. Merlin- with Mordred. He had been glowering at Arthur this morning because it was Arthur that Mordred had been flirting with. Arthur felt as if the world had ended. Merlin liked Mordred, not him. He looked again at the two of them, silhouetted against the glowing torches. Both long, lean, dark-haired, blue-eyed men. Both who were currently- fighting?? He saw Mordred suddenly wrap his hands around Merlin’s throat, and Merlin was hissing at him, and gesturing at him and pushing him back ineffectually. Was this their kind of courtship? But then Merlin started gasping for breath, and Arthur realized with a start that yes- they were fighting! He ran towards them, about to shout at Mordred to release Merlin at once, when he caught the tail-end of the conversation. Merlin was hissing out words, even though he was struggling to breathe _(the idiot! He seriously had no survival instincts!)_ and was telling him ,” –think that he is ever going to notice you? He has Gwen you fool, and he loves her and he doesn’t love anybody else and certainly not me, so why do you think you can win his affections by choking me is beyond me Mordred, you are seriously mad, Kilgarrah was right, I shouldn’t have saved you-” by the end he was literally gasping for breath, but fortunately Arthur had reached them by then, and clubbed Mordred around the head with Excalibur. He dropped down like a sack of stones, and Merlin slid down the wall, coughing hoarsely, and eyes watering with the force of the coughs. He looked up at Arthur though watery eyes and smiled faintly through his coughs, and Arthur suddenly felt a rush of emotion for this stupid, big-eared, loyal idiot, and he crouched down in front of him, and reached out to wipe away the tears. Merlin was still coughing, but the colour was slowly fading from his face, and his eyes stopped watering, and he started breathing normally then.

“What was that??” Arthur asked him quietly, when he saw Merlin begin to gear up to spout some lie _(he was going to lie, Arthur could tell that from the way his ears were slowly turning red)_ “and don’t you dare lie to me now.” Merlin deflated, and sighed and rubbed his hands over his face, getting rid of the tear tracks. He peeked at Arthur from between his fingers, sighed some more, and was clearly waiting for Arthur to lose his cool, so that he could fib something, but Arthur was on to him now, and would wait patiently for him to confess. He was an excellent hunter and had loads of experience in out waiting things and people.

Merlin sighed again, and then blew his hair out of his eyes, and the finally relented. “Okay, so what happened was this. After that last mission, apparently Mordred here started thinking that the sun came out of your backside, and he was all ’ _ohmygod Arthur!_ His muscles, his body, his hair- blah blah blah’ like all the time. I was getting irritated, and even the knights were since he would only be paying attention to you and not on training and all, so they asked me to have a talk with him, which I was doing now- and I was telling him that there was absolutely zero chance in hell that you would even be interested in him, hell you aren’t even interested in guys, in general, when he suddenly went ballistic, and started spitting at me that you were not going to notice him because you were too busy noticing, well… me.” Here he blushed, and Arthur felt his heart skip a heat at the way Merlin looked at him through his lashes. Clearing his throat, he then proceeded, “-and so I was just correcting this huge misconception of his, when he just out of nowhere grabbed my throat and was hissing at me that if I died, then you would be forced to acknowledge him and some things like that. So, that’s that.” He bit his lip then and wouldn’t meet Arthur’s eyes, and it was then that Arthur realized why Gwen had always smiled at him when he asked why Merlin was so upset. 

Merlin _liked_ him.

Arthur felt a smile spreading on his face, and he said nothing, just continued gazing fondly at the bent head of his _(beloved)_ manservant. A few moments later, Merlin looked up at him and saw his smile and asked, “What? Why are you smiling?” Arthur just shook his head and slowly inched closer to Merlin, who straightened and shifted as far back as he could go. Arthur continued to move till he was practically in Merlin’s lap and then he reached out and tugged at the scarf wrapped around Merlin’s neck. Merlin was breathing fast, and was staring at Arthur wide-eyed. “Arthur?” he asked him softly. Arthur just hmmed, and leaned closer to Merlin, taking a deep breath when he nosed at the bare skin of his neck that was exposed when Arthur tugged the scarf. “What, what are you doing?” 

Arthur pulled back half an inch, and stared at Merlin. Merlin stared right back, blue eyes wide and trusting and yet still confused. Arthur was so close he could count Merlin’s ridiculously long eyelashes. He then slowly straddled Merlin, and bent over him, with one hand on the wall beside Merlin’s neck, and the other still clutching the scarf. Merlin looked up at him them and his lips parted slightly, and Arthur was suddenly dizzy with the need to claim those lips, and that incredible mouth that insulted, advised, loved, worried for, and cared about him all the time. “Merlin?” Arthur whispered softly, leaning down. “Yeah?” Merlin breathed out, and Arthur could feel his warm breath on his cheek and it smelled sweet- as if Merlin had spent the past hour eating the cook’s apple pie- and Arthur breathed out over his mouth, “I think Mordred was right. I do pay attention to you. Special attention, one could even say” He then proceeded to kiss that blasted mouth and it was like everything he had imagined. Merlin tasted like apple pie, and Arthur endeavored to lick out the taste of pie from him, to get at Merlin’s actual taste, and the raw flavor that he could now taste brought out a small groan from him. Merlin was now clutching him desperately, with one hand pulling at Arthur’s tunic, and the other tangled in his hair, while Arthur had both hands cradling Merlin’s face. They continued to kiss for what felt like hours and only broke apart when the need to breathe became too strong. Breathing heavily, Arthur pulled back a fraction to look at Merlin. He had his eyes closed and he looked utterly debauched. Slowly, those blue, _blue_ eyes blinked open, and stared at Arthur. Arthur smiled softly then, and ran his free hand through the mess of Merlin’s hair, while the other remained cradling Merlin's face. Merlin swallowed, and then asked,”Gwen?” Arthur grinned back and said, “She knows.” Merlin’s eyebrows shot up, but he looked pleased and so utterly ravishable that Arthur couldn’t help leaning forward to do just that.

A groan from behind them had him freezing though. He turned around and looked at Mordred, who shifted a bit but then collapsed again. Merlin sighed, and Arthur turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow at his contrite expression. “What?” he asked Merlin. Merlin sighed again _(he seemed to sigh a lot! But Arthur had plans soon to change that into sighs of something else altogether)_ and said, “He- he really likes you, you know.” Arthur cocked his head to one side and stared at Merlin, who seemed to be getting all flustered now. “I mean, he _likes you_ likes you. And I know that that’s not an easy task to do. But he, he loves you like I do Arthur, and so you mustn’t be too harsh-“

“What?” Arthur interrupted him, staring at him wonderingly. Merlin paused, confused. “What what?” 

“What did you just say?”

“I said that you are pretty hard to like- “

“No, no, after that.”

“After that, you interrupted me!”

Arthur’s voice dropped to an awed whisper. “Merlin. Merlin- you, you said that you loved me.”

“No I didn’t. I said that he loves you- like I- _oh_.” Merlin stopped, shocked at his own admission. Arthur didn’t know what else to do except grin like a fool, and pull his idiot _(and beloved, so, _so_ beloved)_ manservant closer to him, and continue to kiss his protestations right out of his mouth. 

“I do too, Merlin. I do too,” Arthur said in the sacred space between them when they parted for a moment, and saw the amazement bloom in Merlin’s eyes, and kissed that lovely smile again. 

_(Afterwards, they went to see Gwen who laughed happily when they told her, and looked at their joined hands fondly. “I’ll take my leave now”, she said, before leaving them alone and at the door turned around and said to Arthur, "And if you need me, I will be with your First Knight”.)_


End file.
